After long discussion, City of GJ approves sustainability and adaptation plan
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KREX) — It was testy at first, including “game show” applause at one point, but the Grand Junction City Council approved its sustainability and adaption plan during its Wednesday meeting.
The vote went 5-2 after more than two hours of discussion, including over an hour of comments from the community.
City council member Cody Kennedy was the most vocal about the plan, saying it relies too much on solar power, could poorly affect the environment and negatively impact housing. After he finished talking, the chambers burst into applause from the nearly packed audience.
Mayor Abram Herman admonished the audience, adding the meeting isn’t a “game show” where there should be no boos or applause during the proceedings.
The sustainability and adaption plan has six focus areas: built environment, climate resilience, energy stewardship, waste management, water conservation and city leadership.
The plan broke down each focus area:
Built environment involves a balanced transportation mode and encourages innovative site design for both urban and natural environments.
Climate resilience includes building redundancy to reduce and adapt to natural and social hazards, as well as maintaining current air quality.
Energy stewardship encourages buildings to be energy efficient and create energy independence.
Waste management consists of increased recycling rates within the city and reduced landfill waste.
Water conservation increases water conservation education while reducing water consumption from landscape and irrigation.
City leadership includes integrating sustainability practices into local leadership efforts.
The city has been working with consultants Design Workshop and Spirit Environmental to develop the plan since May 2023. The plan was laid out by Design Workshop Principal Anna Laybourn and Jennifer Nitzky, the city’s sustainability coordinator, during the meeting.
The final plans came after receiving input from city staff, the community steering committee and residents, Laybourn said.
Nitzky said the sustainability and adaption plan isn’t creating policy but rather “a guiding document” that has 87 different strategies within the plan.
“Anything that would be establishing a policy or any type of regulatory mechanism would have to come back to (the council),” Nitzky said. “This is really stating the vision (and) extrapolating on the vision that came out of the comprehensive plan.“
Grand Junction resident Lisa Fry said she was against the plan due to one of its goals addressing climate change. She cited Stephen Koonin, the former under-secretary for science at the White House, who said U.S. heat waves are as common as they were in the 1900s while the warmest temperatures in America haven’t risen in the past 50 years.
“Much of the sustainability plan revolves the concept that the steps we take in Grand Junction is fossil fuel emission, carbon dioxide emissions from our homes and businesses and increase use in renewable energy sources will lower the temperature in the valley,” Fry said. “(That’s) not true. There’s no existential crisis that demands our immediate attention.”
Kennedy said he ultimately believes the plan will not benefit affordable, workforce housing – a big need for Grand Junction now.
“I don’t see this as being beneficial for that goal,” he said. “To me, we need to be thinking about costs and regulations that proactively and positively build up our housing stock in everywhere we can. That’s where we should be expending our energy.”
Kennedy also discussed his concerns about solar power. Although he’s not against the power source, he said wants the city to clarify that it will not buy solar panels from companies that do not ethically source their materials and rather invest in solar locally.
“There is also the concern about what happens at the end of life for these solar panels. I was hoping that as a council would say, ‘If we’re going to bring this type of encouragement for solar in our community that we would have a policy that would encourage and enforce at the end of life those panels be recycled,’” Kennedy said.
He added that some such panels can be hazardous waste.
Mayor Pro Tem Randall Reitz said his experience with solar has been positive. He said at his previous home he and his wife installed solar panels and their power bill went from around $300 to about $10 per month.
“When I think about affordability for people in their homes, I think about the $5,000 we would be saving if we had panels in our new house,” Reitz said. “… That’s the real consideration for me. How can we save people money and get that savings in their pockets?”
Steering committee member Ray Pilcher, who is also the co-owner of geological and engineering consulting company, Raven Ridge Resources in Grand Junction, said through his work he has plenty of places where the community was not prepared for the impact of energy transition and climate change.
“I don’t want that to happen to my family or to this community or anyone else who lives here,” Pilcher said. “(The plan) establishes a framework … with the goal of a robust and healthy future for Grand Junction.”
The plan didn’t get universal support from the steering committee.
Kennedy noted two members, Brad McCloud and Cheslie Miera, sent him an email expressing their concern about the plan. Kennedy said the two members – who couldn’t attend the meeting due to the holiday – said they did not support the plan. They were not able to give feedback following draft revisions on the agreement or disagreements, they said in their email.
“We are honored to be involved in the steering committee and there are parts of the plan that were thoughtful and based on local information,” the email read. “There were other parts… that we did not have consensus on that were more appropriate in a Boulder or Aspen town.”
Council member Scott Beilfuss said he and the city shouldn’t be concerned that Junction could become the next Boulder.
“People do move here because of the beauty of the area,” he said. “They move here for the environment. People move here to participate in the outdoors. I think we have a duty to be part of the stewardship of those things around here. To me, that’s what sustainability is. We’re trying to make things better and present our resiliency plan to a changing environment. We all know things are changing.”
He said any issues can be resolved by working together.
“I met with some of the folks in the audience and I don’t think we came to any conclusions, but we worked on it for two hours and we didn’t go out swinging,” Beilfuss said, with a laugh. “I’m very hopeful that I think there are going to be a lot of good ideas coming down the pike about working on things together and what we can and cannot do here.”
Despite voting against the plan, Kennedy praised city staff for the hours of work spent on completing the plan.
“I do want to compliment staff on the work that they’ve done, and I think it’s an important topic,” he said. “We need to be thoughtful as we grow as a community and certainly mindful of our environment.”
The full sustainability and adaptation plan can be found on the City of Grand Junction’s website.
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